Migrant Workers Challenging Global Structures

South Korea Conference Statement, 9 September 1996

Seoul - We are 105 delegates coming from 16 countries in Asia, America and
Europe, representing various migrant workers' organisations,
migrant support groups, trade unions, women's groups, human rights
organisations and religious bodies. We have come together on 28
August to 1 September 1996 in Seoul, Korea for the international
migrants workshop, with the theme "Migrant Workers Challenging
Global Structures."

We recognize that in Asia alone, there are an estimated 15 million
migrant workers (documented and undocumented.) Women migrant
workers constitute an increasing percentage of this. Economic,
political, socio-cultural and religious marginalisation
characterise the plight of migrant workers.

World domination and control by advanced capitalist interests
through structural adjustment, liberalisation and deregulation
programmes of the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and
World Trade Organisation, abetted by the collusion of governments,
have resulted in poverty, unemployment and underemployment,
unequal distribution of wealth within and among nations, collapse
of agriculture, and the absence of peace and security in countries
within the region.

Advocates of globalisation argue that it hastens the transfer of
skills and technology and enhances productivity and efficiency.
The reality is, globalisation of economies reinforces the control
of advanced capitalists interests on the less developed countries,
leading to the continued marginalisation, if not disintegration,
of economic and socio-cultural systems in many countries in the
South.

Globalisation requires the removal of trade and investment
barriers to facilitate the movement of capital, investments, goods
and labour across national borders. At the same time, advanced
capitalist countries like the US and Japan adopt protectionist
policies.

We are gravely concerned that globalisation is leading to
profit-driven economies that thrive on cheap and docile labour,
especially of women, and societies that stress consumerism and
competition. In turn, these have resulted in the erosion of human
values, commodification of people (especially migrant workers),
disintegration of societies, families and communities, racism,
xenophobia, unsustainable lifestyles, and the degradation of the
environment.

Demand for cheap labour has led to subcontracting mechanisms,
adoption of "trainee" schemes and increasing feminisation of
migrant labour. This translates into absence of accountability of
companies especially transnational corporations (TNCs), unjust
wage structures, absence of economic and social security, and
violence against women and migrants. The migrant workers, uprooted
from their families and communities, have to work under hostile,
abusive and exploitative situations, and are generally denied
their right to organise and unionise.

We recognise the fact that migrant workers boost and contribute to
the economic growth of receiving countries, and through their
remittances, help prevent the collapse of some debt-ridden
countries.

We reaffirm our position that migrant workers, whether documented
or undocumented, have rights as workers and as human beings as
embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the UN
Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers
and Members of their Families, and other international
conventions.

Initiatives have been taken by migrants and support groups in both
sending and receiving countries in the areas of assistance to
migrants, advocacy, lobbying, campaigning, networking,
documentation/information and research.

The challenge to migrant workers, support groups and the people is
great. Globalisation gives rise to increasingly complex processes
and situations. The relentless drive of the capitalists to pursue
globalisation, and the governments' abdication of their
responsibility to the people, make our tasks even greater. We
boldly face this challenge.

Therefore:

*We advocate cooperation among peoples and social systems which
are empowering, people-oriented, and which promote sustainable
life and holistic, integral human values.

*We reject the existing model of development promoted by the IMF,
WB, GATT/WTO and TNCs.